by Kenneth Woods | Apr 5, 2006 | Explore the Score, Mahler, Mahler 2 Notes, Nuts and bolts
Mahler’s Second Symphony is in five movements and was completed in 1894, but the first of those was composed and published several years earlier in 1888 (at the same time as the First Symphony) as a tone poem called “Totenfeier” or “Funeral Rites.” It wasn’t until...
by Kenneth Woods | Mar 28, 2006 | Explore the Score, Mahler, Mahler 2 Notes
After the highly-charged, dramatic and ultimately tragic arc of the first movement, it is natural that one would need some time to recover. After all, Mahler waited five years after completing Totenfeier before continuing on to the second movement. As it turns out,...
by Kenneth Woods | Mar 27, 2006 | Explore the Score, Mahler, Mahler 2 Notes
There is a strong relationship in Mahler’s 2nd between the first and last movement: in essence the finale resolves the questions posed in the first movement, both musically and spiritually. Likewise the 2nd and 3rd movements of the symphony form a pair. Both are...
by Kenneth Woods | Mar 25, 2006 | Explore the Score, Mahler, Mahler 2 Notes, Nuts and bolts
The third movement of this symphony ended with nothing less than “the appalling shriek of this tortured soul.” How magical, then, is the moment that follows? Mahler instructs us that the third, fourth and fifth movements should be played without any break, and so from...
by Kenneth Woods | Mar 22, 2006 | Explore the Score, Mahler, Mahler 2 Notes
As the fourth movement resolves into a vision of heavenly rest one could easily believe that our journey is at its end, but of course this short movement (only four minutes) could hardly balance out and resolve all the issues and challenges the symphony had posed up...
by Kenneth Woods | Mar 21, 2006 | Explore the Score, Mahler, Mahler 2 Notes
The great scene of the end of the world plays out as a march, mostly in F minor. Four flats in the key signature, far from the purity of the C major peroration that preceded it. The final scream Mahler describes is a masterstroke- we’ve been expecting him to...
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